In a farewell concert celebrating her thirteen years of teaching and performing at UNL, violinist Hyeyung Yoon will be joined by composer and pianist Gabriela Lena Frank in a concert featuring Frank’s compositions. Included in the Washington Post’s list of the 35 most significant women composers in history (August, 2017), identity has always been atthe center of Gabriela Lena Frank’s music. Born in Berkeley, California to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Frank explores her multicultural heritage through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, her pieces often reflect her studies of Latin American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own. Featured on the program are Frank’s Sueños de Chambi: Snapshots for an Andean Albumfor violin and piano, a work inspired by Martín Chambi, the first Amerindian photographer to achieve international acclaim and Suite Mestiza for Solo Violin, a work composed just last year. Also on the concert are Violin Duos by Béla Bartók performed by Ms. Yoon and students from her studio, Ye-Eun Cho and Grace Pugh and Frank’s Adagio para Amantaní, performed by cellist Gregory Beaver and Ms. Frank.

Violinist Hyeyung Yoon has been seeking to connect deeply with audiences since starting her professional career with the Chiara String Quartet in 2000. Out of this desire, she launched “Chamber Music in Any Chamber,” a project that brought her and her ensemble to over 50 clubs and bars across the United States, and performed classical music in settings outside of concert halls that were more comfortable for many audience members to experience music. Chiara Quartet’s project of memorizing and performing all of its concert repertoire, including the performances of the Complete String Quartets of Bela Bartok at the Ravinia Festival in 2016, also came out of the same desire. Without stands and sheet music in the way, the audience could sense the music more vibrantly as if they were on stage with the performers. Hyeyung Yoon’s current project includes creating classical music performances based on the Korean concept of madang. Madang translates as the name of the courtyard of a traditional Korean house, but can also mean an open space, usually outdoors, where varied activities such as performances, public meetings, and festivals take place. A deeper and more nuanced meaning of the term is a time and space where boundaries that exist between different groups of people, including performers and audience, are obscured.

Included in the Washington Post’s list of the 35 most significant women composers in history (August, 2017), identity has always been at the center of composer/pianist Gabriela Lena Frank’s music. Born in Berkeley, California (September, 1972), to a motherof mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Frank explores her multicultural heritage most ardently through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Frank is something of a musical anthropologist. She has traveled extensively throughout South America and her pieces often reflect and refract her studies of Latin American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own.